There are many methods to allow people to stay in touch with people such as friends, family, colleagues celebrities, brands and companies. Such methods include television, the Internet, the radio, and live interactions, for example. Many of these services are subscription based to which people “subscribe”.
Broader based methods such as television and radio provide another method to keep informed with others. For example, users may follow a celebrity on a television show or listen to an interview with a celebrity on the radio. It is also common that older forms of communication such as television and radio are supplemented and/or complimented with the use of new communication tools and platforms such as social networks enabled by the Internet.
These broader based methods such as television and radio are less than ideal because it is entirely one way. The user can listen or watch the television, for example, but there is no way to select what sub-set of information they want to receive or provide any feedback to the information source.
Online methods such as social networking systems such as TWITTER, FACEBOOK and others provide a platform for users to distribute personal information to others who choose to receive that information. Users can stay in touch with both people they know as well as celebrities they want to follow through these methods.
Users use social networking to stay in touch with others as well as to use to find information about their lives. However, because these social information systems are usually one way and not dependent on context, information is lost. For example, if a first user is looking for a good restaurant but second user has already sent the network information about a good restaurant previously, there is no way to easily provide access to this information when a user, such as the first user needs it.
Additionally, these social networking systems are dependent on actively participating as opposed to collecting implicit behaviors and thoughts which may be complementary. For example, a first user may be in Chicago, and if the first user wants to know what a given celebrity thinks about Chicago, the first user would have to actively request from the information source, if such a process existed, to find out what a given celebrity thinks about Chicago, for example a given celebrity's favorite restaurant in Chicago.
Another example of a reason to keep informed with others in the medical industry. For example, someone who was just diagnosed with cancer, may want to keep informed with a specific doctor who has an expertise in cancer. Perhaps the doctor has previously given lectures that contain helpful information to assist people who have been diagnosed with cancer. Or, perhaps the doctor has sent out messages on a social networking system that pertain to getting diagnosed with cancer. The patient may start to follow the doctor, but their timelines are out of sync.
Additionally, current content distribution systems usually rely on the user actively seeking the information. For example, they must turn on a television, visit a web-site, turn on the radio. For example, if a first user is in Chicago and wants to find out what a given celebrity's favorite restaurant is in Chicago, they would have to search the a given celebrity's web-site to find out if such information exists. This is not optimal because a given celebrity may not have information related to the user's search, or the user may visit the restaurant in Chicago and—even though the information exists on a given celebrity's web-site, the user may never visit a given celebrity's web-site and discover such helpful information.